@chantale, At what point do we say a word has wholly evolved? I don’t know.

The original usage of gay was happy, light-hearted, jovial. I don’t think anyone uses it that way anymore. When I said it evolved, I was thinking as a term homosexuals use to describe themselves and not as a synonym for stupid.

I agree using gay as a synonym for stupid is hurtful and demeaning.

i am extra sensitive because i’m reading an ethnography titled “dude, you’re a fag” that is about field research in a conservative california high school. the ethnographer (c. j. pascoe) makes reference to the fact that the word gay is used so flippantly among the youth in her study, to mean stupid, that they don’t even get that it is demeaning.

this is not good. saying things are gay, lame, crazy, or retarded is still demeaning. we may want to evolve socially and culturally, beyond this, but we haven’t made it there yet. i think that as thinking intellectuals it sometimes becomes difficult to understand the greater consequence (and the fact that these prejudices are still being propagated amoung the youth of society) of using these words. we may have evolved, but not everyone else has.

i still enjoy reading your blog though, hawaiian punch! keep plugging away.

chantale (aka hippiegrrl)